International Affairs

WHITE HOUSE - President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden highlighted the gap in pay between American men and women in an event marking Equal Pay Day on Wednesday with members of the U.S. national women's soccer team.

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - North Korea conducted a short-range projectile launch several days ago, according to U.S. officials, in what appears to be Pyongyang's first missile-related activity this year.

The United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on top officials in Myanmar who are linked to last month's military coup, as anti-coup protesters took to the streets again, despite the regime’s violent and increasingly deadly pushback.

OHCHR to appoint investigators, legal advisors
Funds awaited for more staff and related work
UN seeks over $2,856 million
Sri Lanka may face long term repercussions
Future dealings with over 40 cosponsors at risk

ජිනීවා මානව හිමිකම් මණ්ඩලයේ 46 වන සැසිවාරයට ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇති ශ්‍රී ලංකාව පිලිබඳව යෝජනාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් වන ජන්ද විමසීම මිට සුළු මොහොතකට පෙර සම්මත වුවා.

KUALA LUMPUR - Scientists hunting the origins of the virus behind COVID-19 and clues for how to prevent the next pandemic say a growing body of evidence argues for expanding the search beyond China into Southeast Asia.

The High Commission of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Pakistani community based in Sri Lanka celebrated the 81st National Day of Pakistan with traditional fervour and resolve to make Pakistan a strong, vibrant, progressive, democratic and welfare state.

OIC හෙවත් ඉස්ලාමීය සහයෝගිතාව සංවිධානයේ මහලේකම් ආචාර්ය යූසුෆ් ඔතයිමීන් තහවුරු කරන්නේ තමන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජනාධිපතිවරයා සමග දුරකතන සංවාදයක නිරත වෙමින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව හා සබඳතා පුළුල් කර ගැනීමට මෙන්ම ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ වෙසෙන මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවගේ තත්ත්වය පිළිබඳව සොයා බැලීමටත් කතාබහ කළ බවය.

PARIS, AFP: The novel coronavirus has killed at least 2,710,382 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Sunday.

Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena was yesterday upbeat about the number of votes received by Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and insisted the Government would not deviate from a domestic mechanism despite adoption of the resolution.

ඇමරිකාව, යුරෝපා සංගමය, බ්‍රිතාන්‍යය සහ කැනඩාව එක්ව චීනයේ,බලධාරීන් රැසකට සම්බාධක පනවා තිබේ. රොයිටර් පුවත් සේවය වාර්තා කරන්නේ ෂින් ජියෑන්ග් ප්‍රාන්තයේ උයිගුර් සුලුතරයට එරෙහිව සිදුවන මානව හිමිකම් උල්ලංඝනය වීම් පදනම් කරගෙන ගමන් තහනම් ඇතුලු මෙම සම්බාධක පනවා ඇති බවයි.

The resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will be taken up for a vote tomorrow, even as the Government stepped up efforts to shore up support internationally to defeat the move that will maintain international oversight on the island’s human rights for years to come.

Amnesty International called the UN Resolution “landmark”, saying it marked a crucial turning point on justice and accountability in Sri Lanka.

Russia has agreed to provide its Sputnik V anti COVID-19 vaccine to Sri Lanka at US9.95 dollars per dose and a purchase order for 6.5 million vaccines will be made soon, the Daily Mirror learns.

Germany will likely institute another lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which would make it the latest European country enacting fresh restrictions.

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - Officials in Pakistan confirmed Tuesday that Prime Minister Imran Khan had received a rare “message of goodwill” from his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, the latest in a series of moves signaling rapprochement between the nuclear-armed rival countries.

The dispatch of 600,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine will be handed over to the Sri Lankan side in Beijing in one week’s time, to be delivered here for roll-out, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy said.

ISLAMABAD - U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Sunday made his first visit to Afghanistan since taking up his post, as Washington considers whether to comply with a May 1 deadline for pulling out all troops from the country under a year-old deal it signed with the Taliban.